Comments from a conservative-bordering-on-libertarian living in the great State of Maryland

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Yale Law Continues To Impress

I remember Ted Kennedy noting a certain lack of constitutional awareness among his fellow Senators during the Alito hearings:

"These issues are so sophisticated - half the Senate didn't know what the unitary presidency was, let alone the people of Boston," he said…”

Well, apparently that knowledge deficit has spread to New Haven, Connecticut.

“…the president and Congress have a constitutional obligation to establish an institutional framework that will keep future John Yoos under control.

“… Lawmakers should work with President Obama to create an executive tribunal that will ensure the integrity of the rule of law. Members of the tribunal will operate as judges for the executive branch, not as lawyers for the sitting president. There will be nine judges on the panel, each serving staggered 12-year terms, giving the president the chance to nominate three judges during a four-year period. Nominees must gain Senate confirmation -- which will encourage the president to nominate candidates with reputations as fair-minded professionals, not legal ideologues.”Bruce Ackerman - How to keep future John Yoos under control

Now I’m no Yale law professor like Mr. Ackerman but I have read the Constitution:

“The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” Article II, Section 1

In other words, short of a Constitutional Amendment, his suggestion is constitutionally DOA....unlike John Yoo's memo, which is what prompted his (Mr. Ackerman's) drivel.

Really, outside of Harvard and Yale, this constitutional law stuff just isn’t that complicated.